This invention relates to a device for improving the air supply for internal combustion engines that are typically used in automotive vehicles.
Applicant is unaware of any device which can be easily and inexpensively attached to the housing of a conventional air filter associated with a typical vehicular internal combustion engine to significantly improve the output power and curtail harmful emissions by forcing a greater quantity of cool air into the engine than normally asperiated thereby.
It is well known in the art to supplement the air drawn into an internal combustion during normal operation by providing a separately driven blower which forces air, preheated by the heat of the engine, through an air filter located across the air intake of the engine to thereby increase its output power. U.S. Pat. No. 1,995,935 discloses the use of a centrifugal fan type blower which has its rotor attached directly to the crankshaft of the engine and forces air to both the cylinder walls as well as the intake of the carburetor to boost the engine's power. Such a system is too complex and would be totally impractical, if not impossible, to install on an engine of an present day automobile after its manufacture by one of average mechanical skill. U.S. Pat. No. 2,681,646 discloses a blower of the propeller type connected through a funnel shaped duct to the side of an internal combustion engine air filter housing. The propeller is rotated by a driving wheel in frictional engagement with the engine cooling fan belt. The air flow capable of being generated by a propeller fan of this nature and relative size would not appear to be capable of significantly increasing the output of an internal combustion found in present day automobiles. Nor would driving the propeller by the cooling fan belt be easily or relatively inexpensively accomplished by one of general mechanical skill due to the great variety of complex belt arrangements encountered on present day vehicular engines.
In contrast to the supplemental air systems of the prior art, a few of which were above described, applicant's invention has as its principal object the provision of a compact, relatively inexpensive electric motor driven centrifugal fan type blower which can be easily installed on any present day internal combustion engine located in a vehicle by one housing general mechanical skill.
It is another object of the present invention to provide a supplemental air system in the form of a blower which may be connected to the housing of an air filter without changing or replacing any of the engine parts on old or existing automotive engines.
It is a further object of the present invention to provide a device of the above mentioned character that will effect a substantial fuel economy, improved horsepower and reduced undesirable hydrocarbon emissions as a result of the increased quantity of air entering the carburetor.
It is still another object of the present invention to provide a device of the class described which includes a means for automatically selecting air from a source which has not been preheated and is cool relative to that air in the compartment enclosing the engine during normal operation.
It is yet another object of the present invention to provide a device of the class described which can be provided with either manual or accelerator actuated control and which is simple in its construction, compact, and comparatively economical in its manufacture, installation, operation and maintenance.
Other objects and advantages of my invention will be apparent during the course of the following description.
In the drawing forming a part of this specification and wherein like numerals and other characters of reference are employed to designate like parts throughout the same.